Climbing Mountains

I’ve been bothered a lot about some stupid dramatic, childish stuff happening to a friend of mine. As someone older, it’s hard to see a friend going through this bullshit, especially a colleague in this business that’s trying to be herself and make it in a male dominated industry.

I said a little prayer for them last night before I meditated and when I meditated, this is what I saw.

God was sitting on top of a mountain. I went and sat by his side.

We were looking down the edge of the mountain. There were people trying to climb to the top of the mountain. He said that we never want to see these people get hurt, so we will try and reach down to grab them and protect them if they were to start to fall.

We want to see every single one of them succeed and make it to the summit. We can’t help but want to reach down and help them, throw them a line and pull them up. But we don’t, because they chose this path and they have to make the climb on their own.

They could have taken the easier path up, but they chose not to. Even if you threw them a line, they wouldn’t take it out of pride. So you have to let them make the climb on their own…only offering to save them before they hit the ground.

Now, there are climbers that set out to make it a competition or seek to do harm to other climbers that are heading in the same direction. They will try to grab them and pull them down.

For those at the top of the mountain, all we want to do is get in between the middle of them and tell the vicious one to step off and go their own way before you push them off the cliff yourself, because it’s one less evil person in the world. But to do that, you would be no less of an evil person than them. So you play the role of parent trying to pry the two apart and tell them to play nice!

People like this don’t realize that when you attempt to pull someone down, you risk falling off of the cliff yourself. God’s more apt to save the victim of the attack from falling before he will reach out his hand to save the evil one. [So if the evil one hits the ground, tough luck.]

When this happens, it becomes a battle for survival even though your chances of surviving are actually greater when you work together as a team to reach the summit. [Something called brotherly love comes to mind.]

The other thing is that throughout life, we are taught that we have to work our way from the bottom to make it to the top. We learn life’s lessons along the way so that we can become better leaders when we make it to the top.

Not too many people can make it to the summit. They give up or fail long before they make it to the top. That’s what separates the ‘outliers’ from everybody else.

Although, there are some people that are different. They go straight to the top. Those are the ones that want to help each and every one make it to the top. But at the same time, they understand for each climber, it is their own journey. We cannot interfere. They have to make it on their own.

When you are on your path in life, you can see the mountain, but you can be right on the ground and be at the top of the mountain at the same time. You don’t have to climb the mountain to reach the summit. All you have to do is close your eyes, and you’re there.

This is a concept that’s very hard for people to understand. Paths in life aren’t always handed out so easily. It takes time to figure it out. Some people need to climb a mountain, just to feel like they’re worthy of their path. Others, don’t have to climb a mountain.

Being at the top of the mountain means you understand fully what it takes to get to that position, as well as what it takes to stay in that position without being knocked down by an avalanche.

There is a shortcut to all of this. The shortcut is wisdom…and love. Don’t think love has anything to do with it? Trust me, it does. It takes wisdom and understanding to know that love is everything.

When you are at the summit, you understand that the dramas of the world are not part of the climb…at least, it doesn’t have to be that way. You also understand that humanity and lending a helping hand (AKA LOVE) is one of the most important virtues of remaining at the top.

People always tell me that they are clueless as to what I’m talking about when I say these things. It usually hits them months later when they are in a similar situation and they exclaim, “Oh, that’s what she was talking about!”

So I don’t expect everyone to understand what I’m talking about right now, but just think on it. It’ll make sense one day.

Here are some song lyrics that come to mind today…

“So Small” by Carrie Underwood

‘Cause sometimes that mountain you’ve been climbing
Is just a grain of sand
And what you’ve been out there searching for forever
Is in your hands

And when you figure out
Love is all that matters after all
It sure makes everything else
Seem so small

Now, as a little inspiration for my friend, here are some lyrics that should make you laugh with regards to your haters. 🙂

“Never Wanna See You Again” Rich Hardesty

You’re all upset about nothing
Never want to hurt you, never want to make you cry
Just keep the bullshit to yourself…

Whatever happened to me and you
It’s on page 672, that’s the end of the book
So fuck you

‘Cause I never wanna fuckin’ see you again
Well you’ve always been a bitch since I can remember when
And you irritate my brain and you’re driving me insane
No, I never wanna fuckin’ see your ugly-ass again
Tell me, why do you have to be such a bitch
You wicked witch, fuckin’ bitch

And another classic gem from Rich Hardesty (I can’t remember the name of the song, but I’ve heard him play it enough times…and that music video from Jamaica is playing in my head):

If You Don’t Got Nothing Nice To Say
Don’t Say Nothing At All

As you can see, everybody has haters. Those that are successful press on even when others try to pull them down. Those haters are insignificant. You can either make them a part of your career or refuse to acknowledge them.